The arrogance and overconfidence of the Dhayut leadership had led them to underestimate every opponent they faced, not the least of which was the Terran Republic. By 2772 the Supremacy was at war with five different empires: the Republic, the Mortalens, the Shandar, the Teekans, and the Ancient Guardians. As mighty as the Ita Supremacy was, this situation was simply unsustainable. While Supremacy fleets could still achieve local superiority this became less true as the war continued. In any event, there was simply too much territory to defend. Growing fleets from the other empires rampaged across Dhayut frontier systems. Meanwhile, as the Supremacy struggled just to build enough replacement vessels, the shipyards of the Terran Republic Fleet churned out dozens of new warships. In less than 2 years the Fleet had nearly tripled in size to more than 100 ships, all of which were considerably more advanced than the designs fielded at the start of the war. That said, the Supremacy was far from finished. In their anger some of the worst atrocities of the war would be committed, as the Republic discovered to its horror on Eulus 1.-Excerpt from The Zentabia War, author Haiyan Huai, Earth, 2790.

2772.03.20

While 1st Fleet begins final preparations, 2nd Fleet departs Zentabia to reclaim Eulus 1. After the Raging Retribution drives away two Supremacy frigates our troops are able to land safely. Three Dhayut battalions defend the planet. Within 2 weeks the planet is ours. However there are no victory celebrations, no welcoming parades, no throngs of happy citizens to cheer at our troops. As our Striker battalions move into disaster relief mode we discover that there are only 1.1 million terrified human citizens left alive on the whole planet. What happened? The survivors report that as the Dhayut battalions retreated they resorted to mass slaughter of the civilian population. Why? To what end? It doesn't make sense. 35 million civilians died due to nothing more than Dhayut anger and vanity.

Eulus 1 is now a graveyard. Were it not for the Way of the Ancients, humanity might have been headed down a very bloody path of retaliation. Even so, in the battles that follow any Dhayut forces that do not accept quarter are annihilated without question.

2773.02.16

Within the year the new 1st Fleet leaves its post at Zentabia and retakes Ubas 1. The few defending Dhayut ships are no match for 1st Fleet's sheer weight of firepower.

"Two BILLION?! You're telling me that somewhere out there is a long-lost colony home to more humans than ALL of our worlds put together except for Earth, and we just MISSED it? Gentlemen, how in the bloody hell did that happen? More importantly, how in the bloody hell did they GET there?"

-President Adam Carter, during the briefing on the Republic's first contact with the inhabitants of Gudu 4.

2773.05.05

In the forgotten ruins of a distant system one of our far-flung exploration ships has discovered evidence of a lost human colony. This cannot be correct... our records show that the colony in question has already been surveyed and was determined to be uninhabited.

2773.08.15

Fortunately, one of our exploration ships is relatively nearby. 3 months later, our ship makes first contact with the humans of Gudu 4. They call themselves the Alaysians, which in their language means "People of the Sea."

As we begin dialogue with our long-lost cousins, it soon begins apparent that Gudu 4 might be one of the original worlds of humanity's long-lost empire. At the very least, the dour and taciturn Alaysians certainly believe that they are. Living deep beneath the waters of their world and aided by a form of stealth technology, they had long ago perfected the art of hiding. Believing that the "Destroyers" in their legends might one day return, they were content to quietly observe the handful of ships that visited their system from time to time, but never did they make contact, and never did they leave their world.

That state of affairs would have likely continued indefinitely had the Ita Supremacy not founded a colony at Hosotoist in the Mureshem system. With current jump drive technology the systems were only 3 or 4 days jump time away from each other. The Alaysians certainly knew this, for they had been monitoring galactic communications for years. They also knew that the Supremacy would, more than likely, find them eventually if something was not done. And so by the time the TRS Lonely Venture appeared over their world and started broadcasting hails over all frequencies, the majority of the Alaysian people had already decided to throw their lot in with the Terran Republic.

All Republic starcharts are immediately revised to show Gudu 4 with its true name: Alaysia. Alaysia is welcomed into the Republic with open arms and granted Regional Capital status. Construction immediately begins on a new spaceport and the world's first army battalions are mustered.

2774.07.05

As the Republic's next order of business, the Raging Retribution conducts an assault upon the Supremacy world of Hosotoist. As it turns out, the Mureshem system is undefended except for a single Dhayut army battalion. Hosotoist soon falls.

Unlike in previous engagements, there are no swarms of Dhayut ships which come to answer our attack. Hosotoist is the last frontier world of the Supremacy, but their exhausted fleet is entirely too preoccupied elsewhere to lift a talon in response.

The image below shows the relative locations of the Gudu and Mureshem systems (center right of screen) compared to Sol and the Core worlds of the Republic.

It appears that the Naxxillian Federation and the Vekundur are at war. The Territory has even conquered the Zukarb system, just a short jump away from Sol. Since Zukarb was Federation's main trading post with the Terran Republic we expect further battles for control of this key system. For now, however, we are not getting involved.

2774.03.17

We have developed the ability to construct robotic ground troops. This is a key development since our low population is limiting recruitment of regular troops. The VLK-01 "Valkyrie" Battlebot is not quite a match for a well-trained soldier, but compared to a regular infantryman a Battlebot can be built quickly and most importantly, it is expendable.

Robotic Troop Foundries are constructed at Earth, Avalon, Alaysia, Ubas 1, and Zentabia. Dozens of new battalions are ordered, as shown in the image below.

2774.11.11

We have developed Quantum Reactors. While the Quantum Reactor is less efficient than our current generation of nuclear reactors, the power output is far higher. This extra power allows ships with only one power plant to attain maximum hyper speed. The excess power is also a boon to warships.

All of our military ships are refitted to include this drive. This reactor will not be distributed to the civilian sector since its high fuel consumption would make it rather unsuited for commercial use.

2774.11.19

For the last several months we have been following rumors of a hidden Galactic Archive somewhere in deep space, the last-ditch effort by the Ancients to preserve their knowledge. It appears that we may have found it...

2774.11.20

Success! As we unlock the abandoned Archival Refuge our computers are nearly overwhelmed by the vast amount of data. From weapons to ship construction to hyperdrive technology, analysis of the data vastly improves our technology in several areas. In one day our level of technology has jumped decades forward! Any substantial technological advantage the Ita Supremacy may have once held over the Terran Republic has now vanished.

Success! As we unlock the abandoned Archival Refuge our computers are nearly overwhelmed by the vast amount of data. From weapons to ship construction to hyperdrive technology, analysis of the data vastly improves our technology in several areas. In one day our level of technology has jumped decades forward! Any substantial technological advantage the Ita Supremacy may have once held over the Terran Republic has now vanished.

With these enhancements our MK3 Fox corvettes and Eagle frigates become true multi-function warships, while the MK3 Lola destroyer can almost be considered a small cruiser in its own right.

Meanwhile our Faslane-class yard ships retain their dual nuclear reactors for now, but they are retrofitted to include Equinox jump drives, an ECM array, twin point-defense cannons, and their cargo bay capacity is doubled.

Finally, a new Alliance-class spaceport is allocated to every inhabited system that does not already have at least one orbital station.

2774.12.18

Despite their dwindling resources the Ita Supremacy continues to harass Zentabia throughout the war. A pair of destroyers cannot hope to survive against Zentabia's orbital defenses, but raids such as this are a constant reminder that the Supremacy is not out of the fight. Also joining in the fight below is a frigate of the Free Aitun Paradise.

2775.01.20

Work continues on the massive Battlebot construction project. By late 2776 the Army is projected to have a total fighting strength of nearly 200 battalions. More than 60% of this strength will consist of Battlebot units. These robotic soldiers will be used primarily as screening units or as a tool to pin enemy units in place until they can be destroyed by regular forces. We expect that the Supremacy's core worlds will be highly fortified, so our Battlebots will play a key role in reducing casualties among our regular units.

We have finally unlocked Fusion technology. Although these first-generation fusion reactors have power output equivalent to our enhanced nuclear reactors, they are far more fuel-efficient. More importantly, they run on Hydrogen, not Caslon. This is a key development because as more and more ships ply the stars, Caslon fuel reserves are beginning to show signs of stress. From this point forward, all new civilian vessels will be fusion-powered.

The fuel-sipping fusion reactor is of particular benefit to the Jellyfish Mk3, which must often travel long distances to tap gas clouds or gas giants.

The new Monarch Mk3 also gains from increased speed and range. These passenger liners typically face long voyages when ferrying civilians from one world to another.

Furthermore, as the technologies underlying the Fusion reactor and the Equinox drive are refined our civilian ships will achieve even better performance levels without need for a refit.

Work has begun on the first Potemkin-class fleet resupply ship. At 1,350,000 gross tons The "Skirmish of Sol" will be the largest starship ever constructed by human hands, as well as being the 2nd-largest object in space: only Earth Spaceport will be larger. While the Potemkin class will be modestly armed at best, it will feature an entire 36-craft fighter wing consisting of interceptors, missile bombers, and torpedo bombers. Most importantly, these ships will be able to deploy over a fuel resource, thus allowing friendly fleets to replenish their reserves virtually anywhere.

2775.03.16

It seems that there is a 24-ship construction backlog at UT883. So many of the military ships in the New Colony Zone were assigned to refit there that it far exceeded the spaceport's capabilities. The Admiral in charge of logistics for the area will be quietly offered an early retirement.

2775.04.16

It seems that our earlier prediction that the Supremacy would not fight for Hosotoist was premature. A small 4-frigate task force arrives in the system and quickly destroys the spaceport under construction there. Once again the Ita Supremacy shows it is not done with this war.

2775.05.06

The Raging Retribution is still nearby at Alaysia, and it quickly responds to this incursion. As always the Dhayut ships put up a spirited fight, but they are simply no match for the fearsome battleship.

Far beyond the borders of the Republic a few desirable worlds have yet to be claimed by any empire. One such world is Erkoohos in the Dathumir system, situated to the galactic east of the Naxxilian Federation. Erkoohos will provide a highly needed source of luxury organic goods.

2775.06.27

Even better, there is an abandoned spaceport resting within the Dathumir asteroid belt. Construction orders start coming in to the shipyard almost as soon as the lights are turned on.

2775.10.09

The Skirmish of Sol has been completed in only 6 months. The ship is so massive that it naturally generates its own extremely small, yet still detectable gravity field.

2775.10.16

Ice planet colonization is rushed to completion. In what will perhaps be the Republic's last colony "rush" about a dozen ice worlds within our borders are marked for settlement.

Wow, 5200 views! I never imagined this thread would get so much attention.

Obviously I haven't posted in a while. Fear not; the story of the Terran Republic does continue, but instead of war it becomes a story of peace and prosperity. By 2776 the Ita Supremacy was finished militarily. They were no longer capable of producing any ships larger than a frigate, their merchant shipping had been annihilated, and those few ships that did slip their moorings had a life expectancy measured in months. By 2780 the Republic began conducting major ground invasions on core Dhayut colonies near Ita. On each occasion the use of vast numbers of Battlebots meant that the Dhayut defenders were outnumbered over 10 to 1.

2780.01.19

2780.06.25

With a massive Republic incursion only a short jump away from Ita, the Dhayuts finally realized that if the war continued, their nation would be utterly annihilated. Needless to say, it was then, but only then, that the Republic was finally able to bring the Ita Supremacy to the peace table.

As you can see in the pic below, the Ita Supremacy's western frontier is now the Republic's new southern frontier. Ita is selected near bottom right of screen.

2780.10.09

And so, with that, the Zentabia War finally drew to a close. 12 years of bloody conflict had seen the destruction of hundreds of ships and an estimated 400 million sentients killed. Although the cost was unspeakably high the Republic succeeded in securing peace for all time. By 2781 there was no longer any faction capable of threatening the Republic militarily. Even the Shakturi, had I continued playing until their arrival, would have arrived far too late to seriously challenge the Republic.

I feel that Distant Worlds is a great game, but I do have a few criticisms.

1) We need enforceable borders. I see that this is getting resolved in a future expansion. That is really good; having alien empires set up shop in the middle of MY territory is extremely aggravating. 2) Lack of productivity from the AI. Even when the Ita Supremacy had more worlds, cash, and resources than my once-tiny Republic, I was still able to outbuild them. The AI simply doesn't pursue shipbuilding as aggressively as it should, and they definitely don't build as many *large* ships as they should. 3) The Shakturi need to arrive much, much earlier than then currently do in order to represent a real threat.

So to the DW forum, thank you. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Really good AAR. Short but very well told and presented. I read the whole thing in one!

Really like how you created the solar system

Im intrested in doing the same thing. Did you manually look for Sol?

I was playing on huge galaxy and looked but couldnt see it or a way of searching for the system

Thanks again for all the comments. There is occasionally a "Sol" system that appears on each map. However, since it is randomly generated, it will rarely look very much like the actual Solar System. Unfortunately there isn't an easy way to search for a specific system in the editor either. For those reasons I created the whole system from scratch with the Game Editor.

In my opinion Your AAR is one of the best :) There were better one, but usually not finished. You not only made it very good, but also finished it :) Very good writing, especially (in my opinion, of course) when You describet at the begining of Zentabia War the battle against outnumbering enemy and an attempt to stop it's troop from making planetary invasion. It was just epic how You introduced coming of the secondary Hi-Tech ship :)